Angels fans’ misery has no end in sight after latest Mike Trout injury

For Los Angeles Angels fans, the 2024 season is quickly becoming a dumpster fire of significant proportions. Things started off with the loss of Shohei Ohtani and the team doing nothing truly additive in the offseason other than signing Robert Stephenson, who immediately got hurt. As the season has progressed, it has become abundantly clear that this Angels roster is still a ways off from sniffing a playoff spot and will likely be worse after their expected trade deadline sell-off. Oh, and Mike Trout has also been out with a knee injury since early May.

In the case of Trout, it felt like the Angels had actually gotten a little bit lucky. Knee surgeries in most sports generally end players' seasons on the spot. However, Trout tore his meniscus which is something that can heal relatively quickly, and Trout himself said he should be back in late July.

Up until Tuesday, everything was on track for Trout's return timeline to come to pass. He was going to head out on a rehab assignment for a few games and, barring a setback, he could have been back in the Angels lineup this weekend. Unfortunately, Trout's first rehab game got cut short as he was pulled after a couple innings due to soreness in his knee.

Mike Trout Injury Update: Angels star sidelined again after setback

Trout was supposed to play five innings on Tuesday and get at least a couple of plate appearances. However, he got just a single at-bat where he struck out before he was pulled after the second inning. All that is known at the moment is that Trout was experiencing some soreness in his surgically repaired knee and the team was still evaluating the situation.

Even if this is just normal post-surgery soreness, there is no way that Trout will be back as soon as initially hoped. Assuming the best-case scenario where Trout passes all of his medical tests in the wake of the setback, LA is extremely likely to at least give him a few days off (if not longer) for his knee to calm down, which would push his return to August. If another issue has popped up, well ... that would be bad.

All of this reinforces the idea that the Angels feel cursed right now. Fans are being forced to watch the ghost of Anthony Rendon alternate between injured list stints and playing poorly while making tens of millions of dollars and being deprived of Trout's brilliance yet again as his body fails him. Even in this season filled with all sorts of misery, this is certainly a low point that could end up getting even worse.

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